Philip Rivers Returns Home to Coach Son Gunner's Final High School Football Season

To most, a morning in Fairhope, Alabama, probably looks ordinary enough. A father and a son at the kitchen table, with the upcoming football season waiting on the other side of summer. What makes this table different is that the father spent the back end of last year taking snaps for the Indianapolis Colts, and the son is about to throw in his final year in high school, headed to the very college his dad played at.

Philip Rivers is home. He briefly came out of retirement to start three games for the Colts late in the 2025 NFL season, and this wasn't a nostalgia tour. The Colts were 8-5 and alive in the AFC playoff race when Rivers made his first start, nearly upsetting Seattle before the postseason slipped away.

Now he's back at St. Michael Catholic, where he'll coach Gunner through his senior year.

There's an obvious advantage to having a former NFL quarterback across the table from you every morning. While most teenagers get told to finish their breakfast. Gunner might be getting, "Omaha! Pancakes right, bacon on two — and if the eggs stack the box, check to French toast."

But breakfast-time film sessions with his pops aside, Gunner Rivers is his own man.

Building His Own Legacy

Gunner enters 2026 as a four-star prospect and one of the nation's top quarterback prospects in the Class of 2027. 247Sports currently ranks Rivers No. 43 overall nationally and No. 4 among quarterbacks in the class.

As a junior, he completed 237 of 343 passes for 3,176 yards, 46 touchdowns and only five interceptions while helping St. Michael finish 13-1 and reach the Alabama Class 4A semifinals. Through his first three high school seasons, Rivers has thrown for 10,200 yards and 111 touchdowns.

Those numbers alone would have made Rivers one of the country's most heavily recruited quarterbacks, regardless of his last name.

Creating His Own Path

In February, Rivers committed to NC State, the same program where his father became one of the best quarterbacks in school history. Gunner chose the Wolfpack over a field that included reported offers from Auburn, Georgia, Miami and Boston College.

Rivers will follow his father to NC State, where Philip Rivers became one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in school history. He's following him to his alma mater, and doing it just a few months removed from his dad's career.

Philip Rivers had been coaching St. Michael since 2021 before the Colts called late last season after injuries depleted their quarterback room. Five years after his previous NFL snap, the 44-year-old returned to Indianapolis for three starts before heading back to Alabama.

Speaking with Kay Adams on the Up & Adams Show after the season, his answer made it clear where his attention was headed.

"I got a son who will be a senior, and that St. Michael football team ready to go," Philip told Adams.

St. Michael's Unfinished Business

And then there's the team's unfinished business. St. Michael has reached the Class 4A semifinals in consecutive seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Jackson.

And while there may be aspirations on how the season might end, the Rivers' final high school chapter won't begin quietly. St. Michael opens Aug. 22 against Battle Ground Academy (Tennessee) in a nationally televised ESPN2 season opener. On the opposite sideline will be another quarterback with a recognizable last name: Bo Bryan, son of country star Luke Bryan. Battle Ground Academy also went 13-1 last season, winning a Tennessee state title.

So the senior year begins on national television, with two famous fathers, a future NC State quarterback and a St. Michael team still chasing the championship that's eluded it for the past two years.

Gunner Rivers now enters his final high school season with expectations that extend well beyond Alabama. His father, meanwhile, appears content right where he planned to be all along—back on the St. Michael sideline, coaching one more season alongside his son.

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